Friday, October 17, 2008

The Awesome Night And Its Awesomeness

What a night. Remember that scene in Fever Pitch when the Sox have a mythical 10-run comeback against the Yanks, and people were dancing in the streets, and you thought, "Come on, people don't literally dance in the streets"?

Well, they do! Everybody was just so hyped up because there was a whole lotta nothin' for so long. It was as if the game started at 11, ended a little past 12, and we were just getting started, so the cheering and screaming and dancing had to occur outside. Very dream- or movie-like.

Do you know how glad I am that the two big goats for the Rays were Upton and Longoria? Let's talk about those two.

EvaL: There's nothing I hate more than A-Rod...except a person who models himself after A-Rod! My god, what is that guy's problem? At first I thought of him as a mix between A-Rod and Jeter: the obvious self-esteem issues of A-Rod with the pure smugness of Jeter. The worst of both horrible worlds. But now I just think of him as "A-Rod." You should watch this guy do the "oh, you happen to be looking at me? I hadn't noticed" routine. "Well I guess it works out that I'd been posing, then." I mean, forget the fact that his batting stance and hitting motions and facial expressions make him look like he went to A-Rod's school of baseball--it's the self-esteem issues that make it a perfect match. But then he's got that smile that says "nothing goes wrong...when you're this hot." So to see a guy like that mess up is just bliss. I really hope for a career's worth of, well, A-Rod-ness with that guy.

TJ Upton: This fuckin' guy is the king of nonchalance. "I'm so fast and smooth, that I never even need to run fast to get to a ball." ALL NIGHT LONG I was thinking, "He's gonna miss one. He's gonna miss a big one." And there he went, in a key moment, doggin' it back toward the wall, and sure enough, he misses it. And they lose after being up SEVEN to nothing. Nice job, ass hole. I really hope Tim McCarver broke into the TBS coverage last night and called the play "despicable," but I'd guess that instead Chip and Buck just talked about how smooth and glidy Upton is.

So we go to game 6. (Was going to be 4:07 Saturday had the NLCS still been going on, instead it will be 8:07.) This Lester-Beckett decision is one I thought of before the series started--it seemed obvious to me then and it seems moreso now, to go Lester in game 6. Yet some people don't get it. It's not like we're arguing for Lester to go on short rest. Then it would be the perfect argument that could go on all day. But we're talking about one guy being completely unstable, and the other guy being an ace who had one bad outing. Both guys would have enough rest, so you pitch the better guy (over the last few months) in the next game, knowing if you lose you're out. And then game 7, you've got everyone available, and it's still freakin' Beckett, he might come out and throw a gem anyway.

And I do think Maddon effed up pitching Kazmir. When you have a chance to win a series, you try to do it that night. You don't say, "what if we lose?" That's not how you win pennants. The thing about Tito is, even if he goes with Beckett, that still does go with his usual thing, so I can't blame him. Let's just hope both Beckett and Lester throw masterpieces. I'll post some more pics and video from last night later.

I forgot to add that Maddon's move pitching Kazmir essentially worked in that he pitched a great game, but, that's not the point. And they still lost, we don't know what would've happened if he'd pitched Shields.

You were there. Did the fans REALLY boo Big Papi? Watching on TV, I thought it was just the typical calls for Youk, the next batter, but that's what TBS said, and that's what Jack Curry reported in the New York Times today. I emailed him saying it wasn't booing, it was Yoooooking, and here's his reply:

"I've covered enough games at Fenway since Ortiz and Youk become teammates to know the difference between a "boo" and a "Youk." He was booed."

I think the Kazmir decision is easily defensible, given the performance he turned in as well as Sheilds' numbers at the Trop; now the bullpen handling, that's another story. I also seriously question the pitch selection to Coco in the 8th. After all those high heaters he was fouling off, we were saying, "He's gotta go low and away at some point, right?" And he never did. Which I'm damn happy about, of course. Using his relievers all ass-backwards made no sense. Tom Boswell in the Washington Post today said it best:

"With a 7-0 lead and his whole bullpen in order, Maddon acted like a guy who'd been dealt a flush in 7-card stud and asked for four new cards."

Truth--There was groaning over some of Papi's earlier at bats. But with Youk behind him now, there's always gonna be the "oo" sound as soon as the previous hitter is out. People have always done that, starting the Yooook before he's actually announced. So that's what it was.

Matty--it just seems like he was playing for having the guys who were doing better prepared for 6 and 7, when he could've won it in game 5 by using one of them. But yeah, I did know about the home/road numbers, and I also heard things like "he told them he'd do it all along" and "Kazmir wanted 5 and Shields wanted 7." It's like he gave us more hope by throwing a guy we knew we owned this year. Even though he ended up pitching great.